Coopers European Lager - Sulphurous Nose

[brysie]

you got it joely. and ditches stout. [of course.]

[joel_m]

lol I remember you recomended that before! I actually bought the stuff needed the other day but doing a smugglers special first and made the mistake of showing my SWIMBO the pics of it taking off.. so a bit of pursuading is required I think!

[brysie]

haha. its a beast but it brews a lovely pint, and im a 1664 man meself.

[Mogwyth]

Coopers recommend 21-27 for fermenting the European but best at nearer 21

mog, they might say 21 to 27 degrees but any brew that ferments out at that temperature isnt going to taste like lager.
youre into steam beer territory i think.
lager comes from europe where the temperatures are lower and so mr carlsberg developed [nicked] yeasts that would work at lower temps.
and then stored at lower temps for ages. and you got clean crisp tasting beer that you just cant replicate as a home brewer with higher
temperature brewing.
theres some ace reading on wikipedia that explains this much better than i can, which really helped me get my head round the naff
tasting lager kits ive done in the past.

Fair comment and yes I read that too and one or two other articles on lagering but I am a firm believer in at least first time round in following the instructions on the tin to the letter and to be honest I have not been dissatisfied with any Coopers kits so far.

And anyway the lager isn't for me

Cheers
Bill

[scottish69]

Ive only done lagers so far - and i can tell you that they are best fermented at 10-13 degrees.

I do my fermenting in the house so to get the temps down all i do is put the fermenter in a plastic storage box/crate (3 quid from tesco), then put 3 inches of water in it. To this I add a few frozen bottles of water and change them twice a day (morning and night).

This worked really well and is simple and cheap!

Go on try it!

[brysie]

scotty thats what i call dedication.
what kits have you done so far and which ones would you recommend?

and mog youre right, probably best sticking to the instructions first time out. im sure it will brew out fine anyway.

[scottish69]

Done a couple of brupaks ones - the check pilsner was ok but i tried the bavarian weissbier twice and failed to get a brew out of either (my only failed kits ever!).

The muntons continental gold pilsener was really good - that was my first kit and was brewed at 19deg ish - so brewing at lower temps should see a much improved taste providing it uses proper lager yeast... which i think it did.

Brewferm do some good uns too - their wheat and grand cru came out really well, no hassle.

S>

[Spin]

Ive only done lagers so far - and i can tell you that they are best fermented at 10-13 degrees.

I do my fermenting in the house so to get the temps down all i do is put the fermenter in a plastic storage box/crate (3 quid from tesco), then put 3 inches of water in it. To this I add a few frozen bottles of water and change them twice a day (morning and night).

This worked really well and is simple and cheap!

Go on try it!

Hi Scottish69,
I am trying what you described to keep my Coopers European lager down to 13 degrees. Luckly whenever I check the temperature it is sitting between 13 and 15 degress. I have noticed that it seems quite slow to start fermenting at that temperature. It just has a small amount of patchy white bits of foam on top after 24hrs. Does this sound right to you. Also, if I am fermenting at a lower temperature should I leave the FV in the cold water for maybe two weeks. Then rack to a secondary carboy dry hopped with Saaz hops and sit that in the cold water for 2 weeks. Then do I store the bottles somewhere at room temperature for a week or so before putting them in my fridge. Lager making is all new to me. I've been making mostly Coopers Pale Ale so far as it was the closest I thought I'd get to making a lager.

[mysterio]

Luckly whenever I check the temperature it is sitting between 13 and 15 degress. I have noticed that it seems quite slow to start fermenting at that temperature. It just has a small amount of patchy white bits of foam on top after 24hrs.

This is quite normal for a lager fermentation, don't worry.

[mattturner]

Never used larger yeast myself but they are notorious for producing sulphur, from what i've heard you should have smelt it when it was fermenting.

I think that this is a beer that should have been left on the yeast a little longer than an ale and at a slightly higher temperature right at the end of fermentation to allow the yeast to clear up all this sulphur they created during fermentation.

Just what I've read! I think conditioning, as long as there is yeast in the beer and its not filtered, should reduce it.

Matt

[beertrix]

iv got one of these in the fv today is the 9th day when i checked yesterday the hydro reading was still to high to bottle is it normal for the coopers euro to take this long to ferment

[scottish69]

Tried a couple of bottles of this euro lager and its got no sulpherous nose any more - but nor does it have much taste! Next time i will use a hop tea bag to get some more oomph!

Still a recommended kit though.

[verno]

iv got one of these in the fv today is the 9th day when i checked yesterday the hydro reading was still to high to bottle is it normal for the coopers euro to take this long to ferment

My experience with coopers is that they normally ferment out in 4-6 days. I always use kit yeast but add yeast vit. 9 days sounds a bit long to me.

[beertrix]

My experience with coopers is that they normally ferment out in 4-6 days. I always use kit yeast but add yeast vit. 9 days sounds a bit long to me.[/quote]

iv just checed again its still dropping is it to late to add yeast vit now and how much sholud i add?????????? cheers

[johnston]

Tried a couple of bottles of this euro lager and its got no sulpherous nose any more - but nor does it have much taste! Next time i will use a hop tea bag to get some more oomph!

Still a recommended kit though.

I'm surprised at that, I've found mine rather tasty and a lot more taste than alot of commercial stuff!!! Anyone thats tried it has wanted more!

What fermentables did you use?? I used BKE which was supposed to be half malt/ half brewing sugar